As a child, my mother taught me the names of birds and flowers, perhaps a trait inherited from my grandmother who lived next door to us amongst her irises and roses. Saturday mornings spent with our hands in the dirt, planting and tending to silently growing things, cultivated a love for these delicate creations and their ability to communicate.

Flowers became a language, the means by which I could understand my own experience and memories. Victorian Floriography, an age-old system of correspondence, designates specific meanings to each flower, creating encoded messages of light, love, and wisdom. Through the language of floriography, these oil paintings explore the life and experiences of my mother, grandmother, and myself. Based on interviews and my own recollection of my childhood, each bloom was carefully chosen to represent a characteristic or memory that bears significance on our individual lives and the events that have shaped our family history.

These flowers hold grief, generosity, devotion, and hope, amongst many other meanings, within their graceful and resilient petals. In painting the stories of the beloved women in my life, my work becomes tied not just to my own experience but to the generations that have come before me, molding and shaping a legacy that will last even when memory falls short and flowers fade.